GB337088A - Improvements in and apparatus for the manufacture and production of acetylene and hydrogen in the electric arc - Google Patents

Abstract

337,088. Johnson, J. Y., (I. G. Farbenindustrie Akt.-Ges.). Aug. 7, 1929. Drawings to Specification. Gases, treating with electric discharge.-The manufacture of unsaturated hydrocarbons, particularly acetylene, and hydrogen by the electricarc treatment of gases containing saturated hydrocarbons is effected by passing the gases through a series of ares, the lengths of which are adapted to the changing composition of the gas in the sense that longer arcs are used as the concentration of hydrocarbons decreases. The acetylene may be removed after each are treatment or after a series of treatments. The initial gases may be methane, ethane, or gases containing the same, natural gases, distillation gases from coal, shale or peat, cracking gases, oil or tar vapours, or gases containing nebulized carbonaceous materials such as tar oils or coal dust. Hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide may also be present, the last three preferably only in small amounts. The process may be effected at any convenient pressure, and different pressures may be applied at different stages. An example is given in which a gas comprising methane 75 and hydrogen 25 per cent is passed through arcs of the relative lengths 4 : 5 : 6, the acetylene being removed after passage through each arc. A similar example is given in which gases from the destructive hydrogenation of coal are, passed through arcs of the relative lengths 2.86: 4: 5. Specification 294,494 is referred to.